Man sentenced for sexually assaulting baby

November 7, 2013News Extra

A Butler man who sexually assaulted an 8-month old baby will spend 6 to 15 years in state prison.

But the child’s mother says that’s not enough.

“That’s just a slap on the wrist. He’s getting away with more than he is supposed to,” the victim’s mother said Thursday after sentencing in Butler County Court. “Mothers ... watch out who you trust to baby sit.”

The child’s mother, a 28-year-old city woman, said Robert E. Schmidt was a trusted friend when she asked him and his wife to baby sit at their West Brady Street home in the summer of 2012.

According to court records, Schmidt’s wife told officials at Children and Youth Services that she saw Schmidt assault the baby.

Court records say Schmidt later confessed to molesting the child while the baby was in a bassinet.

The victim’s mother said she first learned of the allegations from CYS.

And in the months since Schmidt’s arrest in February, the allegations contributed to a downward spiral in her life that has included depression and stress seizures.

“And I lost my kids,” she said, meaning that CYS has taken custody of the victim in this case as well as a younger child who was not born at the time the assault reportedly occurred. She has visitation rights.

Schmidt, who pleaded guilty to involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, did not address the victim’s mother in the courtroom.